Bangladesh official says Islamist party leader executed

NEW DELHI (AP) — An official says a top Islamist party leader convicted of war crimes involving Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan has been executed.

Jail Superintendent Proshanto Kumar Bonik said late Saturday that Mir Quasem Ali, a leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hanged at 10:30 p.m. (local time), hours after his family members met him inside Kashimpur jail near the capital, Dhaka.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected a final appeal for reviewing his death sentence handed out by a special tribunal two years ago.

Ali is the fifth Jamaat-e-Islami party leader to be executed since 2010 when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formed the special tribunal to try suspected war criminals.

Bangladesh says Pakistani soldiers, aided by local collaborators, killed 3 million people and raped 200,000 women in the 1971 war.